


from dust and ashes i have called you

by valkyrierising



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 04:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8431501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyrierising/pseuds/valkyrierising
Summary: His life was separated by two distinct periods - the day he and Gabe were orphaned, and the day he died and became the Ghost Rider.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is a little bit of a mashup between what tv canon has shown us of robbie versus the angr comics. The connection between the rider and him is so fascinating i wanted to try my hand it. most undoubtedly this won't matter by tuesday's episode but why the fuck not? title comes from noah gundersen's 'oh death.'

His life was separated by two distinct periods - the day he and Gabe were orphaned, and the day he died and became the Ghost Rider.

 

The orphaning was a blindside, where his parents were murdered when going out one evening. He was fifteen when Gabe was seven, uncertain of the world and what it would bring. They were in the foster system for a year before they were able to find Uncle Eli, but by the point nothing mattered to him besides Gabe, who was his brother and his best friend. He was ten when Gabe came into the world, the most tiny and fragile thing but precious to him. He always wanted a younger sibling, taking to caring for Gabe usually when possible, when their parents were at work.

 

It’s all they’d ever know, the Hermanos Reyes who relied on each other.

 

His parents are killed in a freak accident, the details blurry. He remembers that it happened at night when he and Gabe were at home, waiting for them to come back. They never did. 

 

At school, the kids don’t know what to do, gave him pitying looks. He becomes reserved afterward, stony face and going to the mandated visit to the school counselor to appease the social worker. It wasn’t like he was a big talker before but clearly the adults believed he needed at least some kind of outlet.

 

Grief worked in strange ways. For him, it was a disconnect from reality, a compartmentalization of their death as someone that was present yet distant. He works on keeping Gabe safe, on reassuring him as they spend their time in the orphanage. He checks up on Gabe, his younger brother’s confusion at their strange new surroundings with strangers. He doesn’t have the heart to tell him until one late night, holding his brother as he comes to terms that their parents aren’t ever going to come back in, walk in through the door as if nothing were wrong. He holds Gabe while he cries, tears prickling behind his own eyes. He was uncertain of what would happen next but he wouldn’t let them be separated. 

 

A full year passes before they’re able to find their Uncle Eli; he’d heard of his parents talk about him, but they’d known he always been someone who drove a lot for the job that he wasn’t around. Gabe’s resilient, so he adapts quickly and he can’t help but feel the awkwardness around Eli, a family member he never really talked much too. Luckily, Eli isn’t deterred by his standoffish behavior, helps them adjust to his place. He gets taller, gangly, dealing with the awkwardness of being a teenage boy along with helping Gabe with his stuff. The school’s nudging him towards extracurriculars, to begin working around the city for college. Even though there’s still time, he doesn’t think he can bear leaving Gabe behind. Eli feels like he wants to say something, but it’s his life and he had already had the decision made.

 

He does what he has to, does passably in school before he hangs around Canelo’s. Before his parents died, he used to work with his dad in the garage to fix cars. There was something soothing about the feeling of a wrench in his hand, the satisfaction of doing a job well done. The Charger is taken by Uncle Eli to their new home, while he knows a little bit of driving it. Eli leaves it for him to use earlier but there’s an understatement that it is his.

 

He didn’t bother thinking about the future, doing what he had to make sure Gabe did well in school. If one of them should go to college, it had to be his little brother who was a whiz with numbers. He drops out after his junior year, working full time at Canelo’s. Eli blessedly doesn’t fight him, but Gabe seems to give him a slight wounded look afterward. Eli works at a different place, moving from Canelo’s to make something a little extra towards the unofficial fund they have for Gabe. It hurts just a little to see Gabe look at him like that though.

 

The next few years he watches Gabe grow taller, seeing him grown into the gangliness he passed through. He gets moody sometimes and sometimes he’s bouncing around him to take him to the comic shop that just opened, or towards the park to play with the other boys during soccer and basketball. Gabe is his sun though, always the constant.

 

While Gabe was young when their parents died, he was a little bit more resilient towards the adjustment period. Sometimes though he’ll see him stare off into the distance when he sees a family walk by and he’ll feel the sting inside him as well. They’re survivors but the sharp wound takes a few years to heal, before it abates inside of him. 

 

Robbie gets the Charger as soon as he passes his permit license, and spends time driving all over the city. The city is a track, taking care to find ways through the streets that reduce the time spent in the deathlock that is the Los Angeles freeway system. Sometimes he brings Gabe with him, but it’s usually them, the Charger, and the odd fluctuating California temperature as a constant companion.

 

He’s twenty-two when he dies, blindsided by a hail of bullets and glass. There’s a ringing in his ear and glass stinging his face, looking up from the car twisting on the ground. He can only think of Gabe, how badly he had to be hurt and moves despite parts of his body screaming at him to stop. He would stop when he managed to get Gabe out. 

His brother is halfway tossed through the window, the car digging into them from being turned over. The car beside them screeches to a halt, hearing laughter. Anger spikes in him, and he doesn’t know what but he prays for this to not be the end, to be able to mete out justice against this cruelty against the both of them. This would not be their end.

 

A black smoke circles towards him, thinking it’s from the car before it enters him. 

 

“Do you want revenge?” Something inside of him asks, a foreigner in his mind.

 

“Yes,” he croaks out, thinking of Gabe and his stillness, the car he can’t seem to push off himself.

 

“Let me enter,” the voice says, and he’s not sure if he is dying in this moment but he accepts the strange presence, feeling icy fire run through his veins. 

 

“Kill them,” the voice tells him, and with renewed strength, he drags his broken body out of the car. The foreigner takes over, the need to kill, to get retribution all he can do. His own self is pushed to the back, wounded and uncertain if whatever was happening was actually happening. There’s a healing that spreads through his bones, feels what has been broken mend itself together, what has been cut close up. There’s only fire inside and a raging need to punish those who hurt him and Gabe.

 

The Ghost was an old entity, and it’s not until he hears the screaming of the men that he realizes it’s not really him but the Ghost Rider that was present. He feels a man shoot him, watches detachedly as the bullets go through his torso but doesn’t feel blood or pain.

 

It’s only after that he feels everything the Ghost rider shielded him from, the sensations assaulting him for the briefest moment. There were a few people who managed to leave, but he grabs the nearest man in a chokehold and drags him up, letting the righteous fire consume them.

 

He watches as the other car drives by, pulling Gabe out of the wreckage when he manages to push out the Ghost. 

 

“Gabe!” he holds him close, the fragileness of him in his arms worrying him. He couldn’t let them take away Gabe too and he’s able to find his phone in the wreckage to call the ambulance and waits for the EMTS to show up. In spite of the car being overturned, it isn’t the most beat up thing that night.

 

They get the news that Gabe won’t walk later on that night, the weariness battling the hyper-fear of Gabe dying through the moment. He’s alive, but he won’t walk again. It’s a small blessing.

 

This new chapter in his life is darker, clawing into him as he learns to deal with the Ghost. He wasn’t in the habit of being scared; it becomes nonexistent with the Ghost inside of him. They can’t die, chosen to judge the unworthy and the damned. It’s kind of cool until some guys stabs him with a steel pole, which pisses him off especially. It's not a common occurence but when it does happen, the Ghost flares on, taking over to find against the attacker on his host. 

 

The Ghost inside of him has a bloodlust a mile long and a need to punish the guilty. It’s a little bit like having a sentient moral compass inside him but it’s hard to keep it down at points. They get used to Gabe having no mobility, thankful there are no stairs in the house or jagged sidewalks while he battles the Ghost into submission. But he can’t help but feel rage at Gabe in the wheelchair, the Ghost thrumming in agreement at the injustice. The first couple of months he’s angrier, vicious (never at Gabe though) as the Ghost fights to claim souls. He takes to working out, to driving faster in the Charger, to push himself to the limit to find ways to battle the Ghost inside. It’s a rocky first year, but he’s able to coexist with it if he can walk the streets nightly to find guilty souls to damn.

 

In the meantime, he tries to find out who tried to kill him and Gabe because drive-bys like that were the furthest thing from an accident. The first man he killed had only uttered the words ‘fifth street’ and he was able to figure out the rest as the locos and wonders who put it up to them. He’ll give them this - they’re organized that they don’t stay at one place for too long, but too stupid to realize that people talk for a price. 

 

There’s a bit of a drug boom going around other neighborhoods, pieces together the influx of drugs to older men who target some of the older boys who try to get some of the younger ones into it. He feels the rage build inside at the targeting of innocent children, prepping to get closer to the locos. 

 

They find the men stupidly drunk and having a party closer to night, preparing himself to let the Ghost come out. No one besides him was getting out alive anyway. 

 

It’s no secret the police department, but the allowance made towards the gangbangers, the brazenness of ‘protect and serve’ tasting bitter in the back of his throat spurs him towards working the ‘night job’ daily. They beg for death, it’s a sound he won’t ever stop hearing for as long as he and the Ghost work together. It’s equal parts disconcerting and satisfying, knowing that those judged will be judged accordingly. He tells himself this, but it never gets any easier. He thinks he should be glad of this. He has Gabe to remind himself to hold back. It’s all too easy to let the Ghost take over, but he keeps one foot behind the line to remind himself that he cannot be a spirit of retribution alone. He has Gabe, and Gabe is what matters. All he can do is to make sure the worst of the worst don’t have the option to hurt others


End file.
